Katie Holmes Eyes the Groom-to-Be in 'Romantics' Trailer

Katie Holmes got her chance for a cinematic takeover in November of last year when she replaced Liv Tyler in The Romantics, Galt Niederhoffer's film about friends who reunite after six years for a wedding. Zipping right through to release, the film will hit theaters on September 10, so now we've got a romance-filled trailer to dig through. Or, to be more apt, a trailer rife with secretive meetings, stolen glances, and dramatic turmoil.

The film sees Anna Paquin and Josh Duhamel getting married, which reunites "The Romantics," her group of college friends who all dated each other while in school. Though that dysfunction junction should be all in the past, there's unfinished business between Duhamel's groom and maid of honor Holmes, who dated for years long ago. While the bride "prepares" for her big day, her girl friends and pretty much everyone else decide to party, which leads to some awkward and potentially marriage-threatening interludes.

But while this all sounds like a fairly predictable scenario of romantic discord, the trailer over at Apple seems to want to insist that this is whimsical, perhaps even upbeat, with a perky score better fit to a comedy, than a film where the maid of honor is called "the bane" of the bride's existence. And, just to make things a little more confusing, none of these people have seen each other for a while, so you've got me why after 6 years, this group is the wedding party. And furthermore, if there's palpable unrest between maid of honor and groom, why would Holmes' character get the gig at all?

Nevertheless, I'm glad to see Holmes getting back to smaller productions, Malin Akerman (who plays the wild child) in something other than total schlock, and actors like Adam Brody and Elijah Wood getting more mature gigs. On the other hand, the trailer already reveals a film that could've used some tips from Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, and certainly John Sayles' The Return of the Secaucus Seven, which came even earlier.